Clinks Members' Policy Briefing | September 2018
Clinks submitted a response to 'Strengthening probation, building confidence', the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) consultation on probation. We held a series of events to inform our response which were attended by over 150 voluntary sector representatives. For more information about the feedback we received please see our blog. We will publish our response soon.
Lord Farmer has been commissioned to investigate how supporting women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) to engage with their families can lower recidivism, aid rehabilitation and assist in addressing intergenerational crime. Clinks is a member of the review’s expert panel and we have launched a call for evidence which closes on 7th November 2018. For information about how to submit your evidence please see our website.
The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) met on 17th September 2018. The RR3 is a voluntary sector advisory group to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) chaired by Clinks CEO Anne Fox. At the latest meeting the group received updates from MoJ officials on the implementation of the Female Offender Strategy, including the National Concordat and the pilots for the Residential Women’s Centres. The group also fed back to MoJ officials on the probation consultation. We will be publishing the notes from this meeting in due course. The RR3 are also recruiting for two new members; a housing specialist and a black, Asian and minority ethnic specialist. Find out more here.
The Ministry of Justice is consulting on a new incentives framework for prisons. Clinks has submitted a response which addresses the equality impact of the framework, emphasises the importance of visits and the need to ensure sufficient time out of cells for meaningful engagement with voluntary sector services.
Victims
Victims’ strategy The government launched its first cross-government victims’ strategy. The strategy aims to strengthen the support that victims can access, commits to delivering a Victims’ Law, and to make victims feel better acknowledged, understood and protected in the criminal justice system. The government will consult on the detail of a victim’s code and a victims law, which will underpin the code. Proposals include strengthening compliance and the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner to better hold government to account.
Prisons and Probation
HMP Birmingham Urgent Notification Initial Response Action Plan: In August, HMP Birmingham (a privately-run prison), was served an urgent notification and temporarily taken back under government control. The Ministry of Justice has published its action plan to improve standards at Birmingham prison, including the progress made since their step-in. These include appointing an experienced Governor and additional skilled managers to the senior management team on a temporary basis, taking the most dilapidated cells out of action, and taking urgent action to ensure cleanliness is achieved and maintained throughout the prison and appropriate pest control measures are in place.
HMP Bedford becomes the fourth prison this year to receive an urgent notification. HMP Bedford was on special measures since its last inspection from HM Inspectorate of Prison, but since then the prison conditions have further deteriorated. Living conditions were found to be very poor, the rate of assaults had risen significantly, and there was a high level of self-harm.
Chief Executive of HMPPS steps down After nine years of leading the HM Prison and Probation Service, Michael Spurr will be stepping down as Chief Executive at the end of March 2019. The formal process to appoint Michael Spurr’s successor will start in October this year.
Parole
New Chair of the Parole Board Caroline Corby has been confirmed as the Chair of the Parole Board. Caroline has been a Non-Executive Director of the Board since 2015. She also holds Non-Executive Director roles at One Housing, Cafcass and the Criminal Cases Review Commission and is a Panel Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and a Panel Member at the General Optical Council.
Clinks publications
Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) - a coalition of Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind - published a report, Jumping Through Hoops, alongside our partners Agenda, AVA and St Mungo’s. The report explores how organisations who are working together to provide coordinated responses to multiple disadvantage (either using the MEAM Approach or as part of the Fulfilling Lives programme) are meeting the needs of women. The report recommends that MEAM Approach and Fulfilling Lives areas involve women-specific services in their partnerships and that the work of their partnerships is shaped by the voice and experience of women facing multiple disadvantage. The report also highlights the need for homelessness, substance misuse, mental health and criminal justice agencies to develop a clear understanding of what it means to be ‘gender informed’.
Funding
A Quiet Crisis Lloyds Bank Foundation has published a report on local government spending on disadvantage, which includes spending on adult and child social care, housing, public health and local welfare assistance schemes. The research found a big shift from preventive spending to crisis spending and an overall 2% decrease in spending by local councils on services for adults and children facing disadvantage since 2011/12. The 2% fall in spending however sits alongside rising demand and masks great variation between services. There has been a 13% fall in spending on housing services and over the course of two years, youth justice spending fell by 14%. Almost all of the reductions in spending on disadvantage have been in the most deprived local authorities which tend to have the highest demand for services.
Women
Still No Way Out The Prison Reform Trust has published an updated report, based on evidence gathered by Hibiscus, on the experience of foreign national and trafficked women in contact with the criminal justice system. The report recommends that the government adopt a strategic approach to achieving equal treatment and better outcomes for foreign national women; that criminal justice agencies and legal practitioners work with specialist women’s services to improve the treatment of foreign national women, and that trafficked women not be prosecuted. The report also urges Ministry of Justice to work with the Home Office to stop women being detained in prison on immigration grounds after the completion of their sentence.
Criminal justice system
Being Matrixed: The (over)policing of gang suspects in London A report by Stopwatch into the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Gang Matrix’ argues that this approach to policing gangs is counter-productive. The report highlights concerns that the Matrix is disproportionately impacting young black men and leading to increased stop and search of ‘gang nominals’ without legitimate grounds. They argue that this exacerbates mistrust of the police and the overuse of stop and search has the potential to increase offending behaviour. Stopwatch recommends that key stakeholders investigate and take action to respond to the disproportionate impact of the Matrix on young black men and the damaging effects it can have. The report also recommends for police officers to receive stop and search training that specifically focusses on encounters with children.
The quality of service user assessment (probation services) HM Inspectorate of Probation’s research team published their first Research and Analysis Bulletin which are designed to present key findings from their ongoing research and data analysis to assist with informed debate and help drive improvement. This first bulletin focuses on the quality of probation service user assessments. They found significant differences in the quality of assessment between Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS), with well-informed, analytical and personalised assessments more likely to be found in NPS cases. CRCs consistently faired lower than the NPS in the quality of their assessments on the barriers to an individual’s engagement and the risk of harm posed to the public or other individuals.
Domestic abuse: the work undertaken by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) HM Inspectorate of Probation conducted a thematic inspection of the work Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have undertaken to reduce domestic abuse, rehabilitate perpetrators and protect victims and children. The inspectorate found widespread poor practice. Contractual targets have led to CRCs prioritising process deadlines above good quality and safe practice. The inspectorate criticised the lack of strategy from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Prisons and Probation Service and the lack of contractual obligations or incentives for CRCs to actively manage domestic abuse. They called on the MoJ to use the recasting of the CRC contracts as an opportunity to address this.
Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics – Year Ending June 2018 The latest Ministry of Justice statistics for knife and offensive weapons sentencing show a slight increase overall from the previous quarter (from 21,045 to 21,101). However this still makes it the highest number of knife and offensive weapon offences since 2010 were formally dealt with by the criminal justice system.
Arts
What does success look like for arts in criminal justice settings? The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance were commissioned by Arts Council England to organise a series of roundtables with arts and criminal justice experts This report is based on the findings from these roundtables which identifies three areas for development: the need to “normalise” arts in criminal justice settings; the need to better define what “excellence” in arts in the criminal justice system (CJS) is; and the development of a “cultural pathway” that would provide access to the arts at every stage of the CJS and continuing engagement upon release.
Prison Service Journal 239 The latest issue of the prison service journal is a special edition focusing on the arts in prison. It includes a service evaluation of an applied theatre intervention by the Geese Theatre Company for women in contact with the criminal justice system; an article about an arts festival hosted by HMP Leicester called ‘Talent Unlocked’; and an article on a recent production about the experience inside a prison van by the Clean Break Theatre Company called ‘Sweatbox’.
The latest news from the South West In this blog Isabel Livingstone, Clinks Development Officer, provides an update on the work that Clinks have been doing in the South West region. This includes our work on service user involvement; our work as part of the Making Every Adult Matter coalition; an update from our meeting with the new Strategic Criminal Justice Commissioning Group and an overview of what the Ministry of Justice’s probation consultation might mean for services in the South West.
What's on the horizon for women's services? In this blog Lauren Nickolls, Clinks’ Policy Officer, explores whether the Ministry of Justice’s review of probation will address the issues women-centred services have faced under the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms, looking specifically at the impact of the TR reforms on women’s organisations, and what challenges and opportunities may be on the horizon for them.
Influencing the rough sleeping strategy The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government released their strategy to end rough sleeping in England by 2027 which includes specific provision for people leaving prison. Beverley Williams of Addaction explores the key points of the strategy related to those in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS) and the implications for the voluntary sector. Beverley chaired an RR3 (Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group) specialist interest group on accommodation for people in contact with the CJS which directly influenced the development of the strategy.
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Written monthly by...
Will Downs
Clinks
© Clinks, 2018
Registered office: Clinks, Tavis House, 1-6 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9NA
Registered charity: 1074546 | Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales: 3562176